Jim Burchell, Peace Works founder, dies at 59

Jim Burchell, a co-founder of PeaceWorks, died on Monday at the age of 59.Family photo

MADISON — When Jim Burchell made his annual trip to Nicaragua to visit the community organizations receiving humanitarian aid from his non-profit organization, hundreds of people were eager to thank him, his friend said.

"They loved this guy," said Steve Chambers, who met Burchell while on a reporting assignment. "He was like their lifeline."

Burchell, a co-founder of PeaceWorks, died in his Madison home on March 24, from a heart condition, his family said. He was 59.

Born on Aug.11, 1954, in Mineola, N.Y. to Jerry and Verna Burchell, he spent much of his childhood in Rochester, N.H. He graduated from Spaulding High School in Rochester in 1972, according to his daughter Robin Friebur.

After graduating from high school, he started a career in politics, serving three terms as a New Hampshire state representative from 1975 to 1981. In 1977, he was also elected to a four-year term on the Rochester, N.H. city council, Friebur said.

While fulfilling his duties as a public official, he attended the University of New Hampshire, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in history in 1980, his family said.

He continued his education at the University of Michigan, earning a masters in public policy in 1983. The next year he married Roxanne Friedenfels. The couple lived Michigan until 1987 when they moved to New Jersey, Friedenfels said.

While in New Jersey, Burchell started to work with activists opposed to the United States’ support of counterinsurgency forces in Nicaragua, said Denis Johnston, a friend and PeaceWorks co-founder.

In 1990, Burchell and two other people founded a non-profit group, PeaceWorks, to support Nicaraguan community organizations. Twice a year, the organization sent shipments of computers, clothing, household goods, medical supplies, bicycles, sporting goods, among other items, according to Johnston.

"He led by example, by rolling up his sleeves and doing whatever it took to get the work done," Johnston said in an email.

Burchell would also lead annual delegations to Nicaragua, taking about a dozen people with him to visit the organizations receiving aid. On these trips, he would often bring lots of baseballs to play and give to local children he met, said Chambers, who went with Burchell to Nicaragua in the early 2000s as a reporter for The Star Ledger.

"He loved his Nicaragua trips. They energized him," Friedenfels said. "He loved helping people and he has helped so many."

For much of his time in New Jersey, Burchell also held a job at Quest for Peace, a Washington D.C.-based non-profit organization which sends humanitarian aid abroad, Friedenfels said.

Burchell always helped others, whether it was shoveling a neighbor’s driveway, coaching high school soccer or teaching someone how to grow produce in a community garden, Robin Friebur said.

Burchell would often end the family voicemail message with a qoute from Langston Hughes: "Folks, I’m telling you, birthing is hard and dying is mean so get yourself a little loving in between,’ according to his family.

"For the longest time that’s what people would hear," Robin Friebur said. "And I think it’s what our friends would think about him."

A PeaceWorks memorial service is being held on April 12th at the Chatham-Summit Quaker Meeting house at 5 p.m. A second memorial Morristown Unitarian Fellowship is planned for May.